Almost 50 years ago, British physicist Peter Higgs first hypothesized the existence of the particle that bears his name. Now we're on the verge of finding the Higgs boson, and Peter Higgs himself offers his own thoughts on it all.

Generally speaking, the now retired Professor Higgs doesn't give many interviews. But he was recently announced as this year's recipient of the Edinburgh Award by his adopted hometown, and in the past week he gave a pair of interviews, one to the University of Edinburgh and the other to the BBC. You can watch the first of these up top, in which he and his colleagues mostly focus on his career and what this new accolade meant to him. The second, in which Higgs goes more in depth with thoughts on the boson that bears his name, can be found here.

For a reminder of why the Higgs matters, you might want to check out this previous article. To get a sense of how Peter Higgs fits into the history of this particular particle, try here. And to track how we're doing in the actual search for the Higgs boson...well, try any of these recent posts.